| name | youtube |
| description | Common yt-dlp actions - download videos/audio, extract transcripts, get metadata, handle playlists |
YouTube Skill
Swiss army knife for YouTube using yt-dlp. Light scripts for the most common actions.
Prerequisites
- Python 3.10+
- yt-dlp (
pip install yt-dlp or brew install yt-dlp)
- ffmpeg (for audio extraction:
brew install ffmpeg)
Scripts
All scripts are in skills/youtube/scripts/. Output goes to skills/youtube/output/.
transcript.py — Extract Subtitles
python transcript.py "URL"
python transcript.py "URL" --lang es
python transcript.py "URL" --timestamps
download.py — Download Video/Audio
python download.py "URL"
python download.py "URL" --quality 720
python download.py "URL" --audio
python download.py "URL" --audio --format m4a
info.py — Get Metadata
python info.py "URL"
python info.py "URL" --json
python info.py "URL" --formats
playlist.py — Playlist Operations
python playlist.py "URL"
python playlist.py "URL" --download
python playlist.py "URL" --download --audio
python playlist.py "URL" --range 1-5
Common Workflows
Research a video:
python info.py "URL"
python transcript.py "URL"
Archive a podcast:
python download.py "URL" --audio
Download a course:
python playlist.py "URL" --download --quality 720
Output Structure
skills/youtube/output/
├── transcripts/ # .txt transcript files
├── videos/ # Downloaded videos
├── audio/ # Extracted audio files
└── info/ # JSON metadata dumps
Notes
- Video IDs work as well as full URLs
- Rate limiting: wait a few minutes between bulk operations
- Some videos have no subtitles available